New Jersey is trying to become the first state to legalize Internet gambling, according to this Press of Atlantic City story.

A proposed bill would allow operators of brick-and-mortar casinos in the state to operate web sites that offer games such as poker. Apparently, California is considering similar legislation.

Internet gambling took a major hit in 2006 after Congress passed a bill that prohibited U.S. banks and credit-card companies from processing transactions for gambling websites. Several popular poker sites operated internationally, including PartyPoker, stopped taking bets from U.S. residents.

Despite the federal crackdown, we’ve continued to see ads in the U.S. for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and other online gambling sites because they refer to the companies’ .net home pages, which are billed as educational tools that allow users to play poker with chips that don’t have monetary value. The .com sites are the actual gambling sites. Indeed, countless U.S. residents are still illegally gambling on those sites, and that revenue generated for operators remains untaxed.

Proponents say regulating online gambling would help bolster state revenues at a time when many are struggling with budget shortfalls. Opponents say it would create more problems for pathological gamblers and open the door for underage gambling.

Separately,the Colorado Supreme Court may be asked to rule on whether poker is gambling or a game of skill. We’re still waiting for an appeal to be filed by Kevin Raley, the defendant in the case, with help from the Poker Players Alliance.

Colorado’s mountain casinos posted an 8 percent increase in revenue in November compared with the same month in 2008, according to data released today by the state Division of Gaming.

Black Hawk casinos actually saw a 13 percent increase in revenue, but the statewide total was taken down because casinos in Cripple Creek and Central City reported drops in revenue.

Home to the state’s largest casinos, Black Hawk generates the bulk of Colorado’s gaming revenue.

For November, the state’s 40 casinos reported adjusted gross proceeds – total bets minus payouts – of $61.2 million, up from $56.7 million last year.

Through the first five months of Amendment 50 changes, AGP is up 8.5 percent compared with a year ago. Gaming taxes are up 18.8 percent, an indication that the big boys (Ameristar, Isle) are responsible for much of the revenue increase. Any revenue generated beyond $13 million by a casino within a fiscal year is taxed at 20 percent, the highest rate. The first $13 million is taxed at rates ranging from 0.25 percent to 16 percent.

Ameristar CEO Gordon Kanofsky told me last month that the company’s Black Hawk casino posted a 24 percent increase in revenue during the third quarter (the industry recorded 8 percent growth during the same three months). Pretty astonishing numbers. But it’s even more staggering witnessing the domination first hand.

More than five months after bet limits were raised, and two-and-a-half months after Ameristar opened its luxury hotel, the company’s Black Hawk casino is literally crushing the competition, based on my experience and accounts from casino employees.

The Lodge Casino, the premier spot for poker players in Black Hawk just six months ago, struggled to fill tables on a recent Friday evening. Even with a $300,000 bad-beat jackpot, it felt like a weekday evening as about half of the casino’s poker tables were unoccupied. Meanwhile, two-hour waits for a seat at a 1-2, 100 game are common in Ameristar’s poker room on weekend nights.

The state Division of Gaming should release November revenue figures within the next week. But it won’t be broken out by casino. We won’t know just how far ahead of the competition Ameristar is until the company announces fourth quarter financial results early next year. My guess is the gap between Ameristar and the rest of the industry will widen.

And while regulators have already cut their projection on casino-tax revenue growth for the current fiscal year from 25 percent to 10 percent, I wouldn’t be surprised if the forecast was cut even further. By most accounts, Ameristar is the only casino that is maintaining or exceeding the growth pace seen during the first month of higher limits, extended hours and new games.

The assumption is that more regulars are playing at Ameristar with hopes of earning comps for the casino’s hotel, which is clearly a cut above anything else available in Black Hawk. Whether the casino can hold onto those gamblers after Read more…

Black Hawk and Central City casinos are on pace to post an increase in revenue this year after experiencing a deep downturn in 2008, thanks in large part to higher limits, longer hours and new games, according to an analysis by gaming consultant Bill Palermo.

Through October, Black Hawk and Central Casinos posted a 1.5 percent increase in revenue compared with the same time frame a year.

Casinos in the mountain towns suffered a 12.4 percent for the first ten months of 2008, Palermo’s report states. Cripple Creek also has commercial casinos, but that market isn’t included in Palermo’s report.

In July, Colorado casinos were allowed to raise the minimum bet limit from $5 to $100, add craps and roulette table games and stay open 24 hours. Gaming revenues increased 10.7 percent from July to October compared to the same period in 2008. That growth equates to an increase of $21.1 million for the four-month period, and two-thirds of the increase stems from table games, which now represent 11 percent of total revenue.

Palermo said these signs show that the industry may have “bottomed out” after enduring an 18-month downturn from 2008 to mid-2009.

Despite the boost in revenue, a couple of operators are struggling financially, an indication that the industry has yet to bottom out nationwide.

Colorado Division of Gaming director Ron Kammerzell provided some interesting statistics about the state’s casino industry at a Legislative Audit Committee hearing Monday. As noted in today’s story, regulators sharply cut the projection on the impact of Amendment 50 on gaming tax revenue to 10 percent from 25 percent.

During the first two months of the changes, black jack revenue shot up 237 percent and poker increased 46 percent. Slot revenue was up 1.9 percent, not including games that have a max bet of higher than $5 maximum. Slots still generate the bulk of the industry’s revenue. In July and August, slots generated more than $130 million in revenue, while poker generated $6.4 million.

Through the entire calendar year 2008, the division received 1,005 new support license applications, which is an indication of new hires at the casinos. So far this year, the division has received 2,357 new applications. In July and August alone, there were 555 applications. The monthly average historically has been about 100, Kammerzell said. The numbers show that casinos have continued to hire two months after the changes took effect. Ameristar Casinos said last week its employment has increased from 490 to 750 this year, and would reach 800 by the time its hotel opens tonight.

To make room for the new table games, casinos cut back on their slot machines, from 16,787 in the fiscal year that ended June 30 to 15,673 during the current fiscal year. Poker tables nearly tripled and black jack tables doubled. There are 27 craps tables and 26 roulette tables at casinos in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek.

The Gaming Division’s budget for the current fiscal year is $10.5 million, up 6 percent from fiscal 2009. It added 13 full-time workers to handle Amendment 50 changes and now employ 92.

A district court judge has ruled that a county court judge in Weld County erred in allowing a defendant charged with illegal gambling to present evidence during trial contending that poker is a game of skill.

The first defendant to go to trial was Kevin Raley, who ran the game along with four others. He was acquitted and charges against the others were dropped. He had argued, among other things, that poker is a game of skill. Illegal gambling occurs when a game has chance, risk and reward. If poker is deemed a game of skill, then there is no chance and thus would not be illegal.

The trial judge allowed Raley to call an expert – DU professor Bob Hannum – to testify to that point. Raley also presented evidence that he was not guilty because everyone at the tournament had a social relationship – one of the exemptions to illegal gambling. The jury did not state why they found him not guilty, so it’s unclear which argument jurors bought.

Raley can’t be retried and charges against his partners won’t be refiled.

Nonetheless, the state appealed the county court’s decision to allow Hannum to testify to clarify future prosecutions.

“The activity at issue in this case involved gambling and the only exception that properly should have been presented to the jury for consideration was whether the activity fell within the social gambling exception,” Judge James Hartmann wrote in his opinion Aug. 4.

If Hartmann’s ruling is not appealed, or is held up on appeal, it means cash poker games and Hold’em tournaments that involve a buy-in is only legal at a casino in one of Colorado’s three gambling towns, or at home where everyone knows everyone.

The Poker Players Alliance, an advocacy group that paid for Hannum to testify in the case, said it is reviewing its options Read more…

The higher limits, new games and longer hours were a big hit over the July Fourth weekend for Colorado’s mountain casinos. But the industry is probably not done fighting for changes.

At the Isle’s launching festivities in Black Hawk on the night of July 1st, the house was packed. Craps and roulette tables were four deep at around midnight. The casino had a Vegas atmosphere because of the new games and $100 limits. Even though there’s a $100 maximum bet, on games like craps, you can actually bet much more than that at any given time because the $100 cap is on each bet, and in craps there are so many different bets. Same with roulette. You can bet $100 on black, $100 on even, and up to $100 on any number with no limit on how many numbers you want.

The Isle stayed pretty busy until … the last call, which is an important difference between Black Hawk and Vegas, where they never stop serving drinks. Up the hill, at 2 a.m., you have to finish your last drink or have them taken away because of Colorado’s liquor laws. Just after 2, the Isle was pretty dead, except for the new games.

So it would not be surprising if the casino industry made a push, perhaps a couple of years down the road, to win an exemption from the state’s liquor laws. It might be worth it for bigger operators such as the Isle and Ameristar.

A couple of other observations: The casinos should have opened all of their craps and roulette tables at all times because there always seemed to be crowds around those games. Instead, except for the busiest hours on the weekend, they kept just one of each opened. I’m not sure if it was strategic or because they couldn’t hire enough dealers Read more…

Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.